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Jan 2, 2013
01/13
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president obama. he knows it and he ran on it. and whereby 20 years ago president obama would have been roundly defeated by an establishment candidate like mitt romney. the white establishment is now the minority. and the voters, many of them, feel that this economic system is stacked against them and they want stuff. >> it's sort of delusional, first of all. i mean, because it's sort of a claim made and then the sort of the information ix extracted from that claim. yes, i agree that the majority, the plurality of voters in this country think the economic system is stacked against them. but i don't think that they therefore turn around and say, "we want stuff." i think what they say is, "and the republican party is part of the reason the economic system's stacked against us." but, you know, the larger claim, the larger sort of statement is certainly there is this panicked, wounded, astonished, nostalgic longing for an america, a white, conservative america, that in many ways never was. never, never really was. and so it's sort of
president obama. he knows it and he ran on it. and whereby 20 years ago president obama would have been roundly defeated by an establishment candidate like mitt romney. the white establishment is now the minority. and the voters, many of them, feel that this economic system is stacked against them and they want stuff. >> it's sort of delusional, first of all. i mean, because it's sort of a claim made and then the sort of the information ix extracted from that claim. yes, i agree that the...
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Feb 23, 2013
02/13
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president obama has finally recognized they need help. in his state of the union, he proposed an increase in the minimum wage. >> tonight let's declare that in the wealthiest nation on earth, no one who works full-time should have to live in poverty, and raise the federal minimum wage to $9 an hour. >> but as the economist dean baker points out this week, "if the minimum wage had risen in step with productivity growth, it would be over $16.50 an hour today." we talk a lot about what's happening to the middle class, but the american dream's really become a nightmare for the poor. just about everyone has an opinion about the trouble we're in. the blame game is at fever pitch in washington where obstinate republicans and hapless democrats once again play kick-the-can with the problems we face. you wish they would just stop and listen to richard wolff. an attentive and systematic observer of capitalism and democracy, he taught economics for 25 years at the university of massachusetts and has published books such as "democracy at work," "occup
president obama has finally recognized they need help. in his state of the union, he proposed an increase in the minimum wage. >> tonight let's declare that in the wealthiest nation on earth, no one who works full-time should have to live in poverty, and raise the federal minimum wage to $9 an hour. >> but as the economist dean baker points out this week, "if the minimum wage had risen in step with productivity growth, it would be over $16.50 an hour today." we talk a lot...
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Feb 11, 2013
02/13
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it brought us to grief in vietnam and iraq and may do so again with president obama's cold-blooded use of drones and his seeming indifference to so-called "collateral damage" otherwise known as innocent bystanders. by the standards of slaughter in vietnam the deaths by drone are hardly a blip on the consciousness of official washington. but we have to wonder if each one -- a young boy gathering wood at dawn, unsuspecting of his imminent annihilation, the student picking up the wrong hitchhikers, that tribal elder standing up against fanatics -- doesn't give rise to second thoughts by those judges who prematurely handed our president the nobel prize for peace. better they had kept it on the shelf in hopeful waiting, untarnished. at our website, billmoyers.com, we've added to our extensive coverage of drone warfare and counterterrorism, including an update from last week's guest, vicki divoll, a former legal advisor to the cia. that's all at billmoyers.com. i'll see you there and i'll see you here, next time. ♪ ♪ >>> don't wait a week to get more moyers. visit billmoyers.com for excl
it brought us to grief in vietnam and iraq and may do so again with president obama's cold-blooded use of drones and his seeming indifference to so-called "collateral damage" otherwise known as innocent bystanders. by the standards of slaughter in vietnam the deaths by drone are hardly a blip on the consciousness of official washington. but we have to wonder if each one -- a young boy gathering wood at dawn, unsuspecting of his imminent annihilation, the student picking up the wrong...
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Aug 12, 2013
08/13
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. >> if workers at the bottom get the increase in the minimum wage that president obama proposed in his state of the union message, they will still be faring less well than their counterparts did 50 years ago. >> that's right. >> what does that say to you? >> the peak for the minimum wage in terms of its real purchasing power was 1968. it's been basically declining with a couple of ups and downs ever since. so, that if you adjust for the current price, the minimum wage was about $10.50 roughly, back in 1968 in terms of what it could buy. and it's $7.25 today in terms of what it can buy. so, you've taken the folks at the bottom, the people who work hard, full-time jobs, and you've made their economic condition worse over a 50-year period, while wealth has accumulated at the top. what kind of a society does this? and then the arguments have come out, which are in my profession, a major staple for many careers, are arguments that, "gee, if you raise the minimum wage, a few people who might've otherwise gotten a job won't get it because the employer doesn't want to pay the higher wage." wel
. >> if workers at the bottom get the increase in the minimum wage that president obama proposed in his state of the union message, they will still be faring less well than their counterparts did 50 years ago. >> that's right. >> what does that say to you? >> the peak for the minimum wage in terms of its real purchasing power was 1968. it's been basically declining with a couple of ups and downs ever since. so, that if you adjust for the current price, the minimum wage...
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Oct 19, 2013
10/13
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. >> yes, president obama has said he cannot give in to the people threatening default because this would increase their incentive to use it again. do you agree with that? >> i agree. i recognize that the president was in a very difficult position. and it was obviously scary. but threatening actually to default on your obligations in this way seems to me to go well beyond normal political life. and any president it seems to me has to defend the political process against that. and i think he's right to say, well, it might not be the democrats in future, i don't know. that this is not a weapon that should be used. and my own view is that the debt ceiling should be eliminated. it's a very strange law. it's not constitutional. it's not a constitutional requirement. and it obliges, if it's imposed and if it's actually not lifted, it obliges the president to break the law. now, to have a law that obliges the president to break the law, i.e., not to meet the spending commitments that as an executive he's obliged legally to meet, to have such a law seems to me just ruinous. and i think you should
. >> yes, president obama has said he cannot give in to the people threatening default because this would increase their incentive to use it again. do you agree with that? >> i agree. i recognize that the president was in a very difficult position. and it was obviously scary. but threatening actually to default on your obligations in this way seems to me to go well beyond normal political life. and any president it seems to me has to defend the political process against that. and i...
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Feb 17, 2013
02/13
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pogo also reports that when obama's first s.e.c. chair, mary schapiro, pushed for reform of the money markets business, it was opposed by the two republicans on the commission and one democrat, luis aguilar, who used to be an executive vice president with the money management firm invesco. he came out against schapiro's plan shortly after a meeting with invesco officials. coincidence? aguilar told pogo there's no connection. sure. when president george w. bush was in the white house and named chris cox to run the s.e.c., we screamed like bloody murder because cox had been a partner at a huge global law firm whose client list included deutsche bank and goldman sachs. now obama's pushing his choices through the same revolving door. it's called "regulatory capture." the takeover of government agencies by the very corporations they're supposed to keep an eye on to protect everyone's investments and pensions against abuses of private power. what next? well, stay tuned. in the next few weeks, mary jo white will sit for her confirmation he
pogo also reports that when obama's first s.e.c. chair, mary schapiro, pushed for reform of the money markets business, it was opposed by the two republicans on the commission and one democrat, luis aguilar, who used to be an executive vice president with the money management firm invesco. he came out against schapiro's plan shortly after a meeting with invesco officials. coincidence? aguilar told pogo there's no connection. sure. when president george w. bush was in the white house and named...
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Nov 23, 2013
11/13
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. >> are you talking about obama? >> i'm talking about what you say. >> i know, i know. >> but you do -- i must be fair and say that you go on in that same chapter of one of these books to say isn't it time we forget trying to pressure obama to do the right thing? >> obama to me is symptomatic to me of the liberal center. but the issue is much greater than him. i mean, the issue is in a system that is entirely broken. it's broken. elections are bought by big money. the political process is not in the hands of the people. it's in the hands of very few people. and it seems to me we have to ask ourselves what kind of formative culture needs to be put in place in which education becomes central to politics, in which politics can be used to help people to be able to see things differently, to get beyond this system that is so closed, so powerfully normalized. i mean, the right since the 1970s has created a massive cultural apparatus, a slew of anti-public intellectuals. they've invaded the universities with think tanks. th
. >> are you talking about obama? >> i'm talking about what you say. >> i know, i know. >> but you do -- i must be fair and say that you go on in that same chapter of one of these books to say isn't it time we forget trying to pressure obama to do the right thing? >> obama to me is symptomatic to me of the liberal center. but the issue is much greater than him. i mean, the issue is in a system that is entirely broken. it's broken. elections are bought by big money....
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Jan 12, 2013
01/13
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so obama's right to say he doesn't negotiate. i'd like to know exactly what he will do if it turns out that there is not a quorum of sane people in the republican party. >> if you were secretary of the treasury, what would you recommend he do? >> i'm for whatever gimmick works. so the most dignified is to say, "look, this is ridiculous. you are giving the president -- effectively congress is giving the president inconsistent instructions. it's passed bills mandating spending. it's passed bills that give us inadequate revenue to cover that spending which requires that we borrow. and then you're saying, 'i can't borrow.' well, you know. and my reading of the constitution is i have to obey the due legislative process and go ahead and do this borrowing to meet the bills that we've already incurred, as the president said." that's sort of what people are calling the fourteenth amendment solution, that basically it's unconstitutional to give into this debt limit thing. i guess that's your best solution. they don't think that that's work
so obama's right to say he doesn't negotiate. i'd like to know exactly what he will do if it turns out that there is not a quorum of sane people in the republican party. >> if you were secretary of the treasury, what would you recommend he do? >> i'm for whatever gimmick works. so the most dignified is to say, "look, this is ridiculous. you are giving the president -- effectively congress is giving the president inconsistent instructions. it's passed bills mandating spending....
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Oct 7, 2013
10/13
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they demand obama cave on the keystone pipeline. they demand the watchdogs over corporate pollution be muzzled, and the big, bad regulators of wall street sent home. their ransom list goes on and on. the debt ceiling is next. they would have the government default on its obligations and responsibilities. when the president refused to buckle to their extortion, they threw their tantrum. like the die hards of the racist south a century and a half ago, who would destroy the union before giving up their slaves, so would these people burn the place down, sink the ship of state, and sow economic chaos to get their way. this says it all, they even shuttered the statue of liberty. watching all this from london, the noted commentator martin wolf, of the capitalist friendly "financial times," says "america flirts with self-destruction." this man is the biggest flirt of all, newt gingrich. it was newt gingrich who 20 years ago spearheaded the right-wing's virulent crusade against the norms of democratic government. as speaker of the house he t
they demand obama cave on the keystone pipeline. they demand the watchdogs over corporate pollution be muzzled, and the big, bad regulators of wall street sent home. their ransom list goes on and on. the debt ceiling is next. they would have the government default on its obligations and responsibilities. when the president refused to buckle to their extortion, they threw their tantrum. like the die hards of the racist south a century and a half ago, who would destroy the union before giving up...
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Mar 9, 2013
03/13
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and one thing i love about obama is that he is absolutely not naive. and you know, you don't get elected president, when you're a black guy if you're naive. this man -- you know, i couldn't get elected, you know, dogcatcher in my building. he's managed this miracle, he's reelected african american president. >> and yet in some of your recent speeches, you keep telling young people to agitate, agitate, agitate. >> no, that's -- >> i think you said to them if you don't commit and get active the world's going to end. >> absolutely, well, and i believe that. i believe that literally. i used to say that hyperbolically, but now with climate change i believe that absolutely literally. but being active as a citizen doesn't mean being, you know, sort of mindlessly in opposition. and you know, anarchism's much more romantic than, you know, electoral politics. you get to wear sexier clothing and hang out in parks and, you know, really scream about the revolution, and that's thrilling. but if you don't actually believe that we're in a revolutionary moment and if y
and one thing i love about obama is that he is absolutely not naive. and you know, you don't get elected president, when you're a black guy if you're naive. this man -- you know, i couldn't get elected, you know, dogcatcher in my building. he's managed this miracle, he's reelected african american president. >> and yet in some of your recent speeches, you keep telling young people to agitate, agitate, agitate. >> no, that's -- >> i think you said to them if you don't commit...
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Sep 28, 2013
09/13
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but i also brought with me an excerpt from another speech that president obama, not candidate obama, made. here it is. >> for the first time in 18 years, america's poised to produce more of our own oil than we buy from other nations. and today we produce more natural gas than anybody else. so we're producing energy, and these advances have grown our economy, they've created new jobs that can't be shipped overseas. and, by the way, they've also helped drive our carbon pollution to its lowest levels in nearly 20 years. since 2006, no country on earth has reduced its total carbon pollution by as much as the united states of america. >> now, the irony is this was part of a speech, a larger speech, where he also laid out the plans to cut greenhouse emissions. you've got this paradox, this contradiction, this irony at the heart. you say you were hopefully inspired by the president. what's happened since then to make you less inspired? >> well, a lot of his behavior has been acquiescence to the political logic of how money pollutes politics in the united states and elsewhere in the so if yo
but i also brought with me an excerpt from another speech that president obama, not candidate obama, made. here it is. >> for the first time in 18 years, america's poised to produce more of our own oil than we buy from other nations. and today we produce more natural gas than anybody else. so we're producing energy, and these advances have grown our economy, they've created new jobs that can't be shipped overseas. and, by the way, they've also helped drive our carbon pollution to its...
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Nov 16, 2013
11/13
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the first was about president obama's use of drones to kill suspected terrorists. i asked, does our national security justify their use even at the cost of innocent lives? one response in particular seems to express the majority of opinion. >> "we are putting innocent people at risk all over the world. if that isn't terrorism, what is? mr. obama, can you even imagine what it feels like to live in a country over which a foreign drone can fly and decide to kill you at will? wouldn't that very threat make you an enemy of the country that did so?" >> but there were opposing viewpoints, like this one. >> "if they -- pakistan -- don't want innocent civilians killed by drones, then they need to declare war on the terrorists on their soil and drive them out. to do nothing is to give them a safe place to train and carry on their worldwide operations. as in any war, civilians are going to get killed, but the responsibility lies with pakistan. we have the right to defend ourselves until the threat is ended." >> "war is hell and the results of war are always hellish. to find a
the first was about president obama's use of drones to kill suspected terrorists. i asked, does our national security justify their use even at the cost of innocent lives? one response in particular seems to express the majority of opinion. >> "we are putting innocent people at risk all over the world. if that isn't terrorism, what is? mr. obama, can you even imagine what it feels like to live in a country over which a foreign drone can fly and decide to kill you at will? wouldn't...
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Dec 23, 2013
12/13
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and today, you know, even in this era of obama, in this time of supposed color blindness, we now have created a system of mass incarceration, a penal system unprecedented in world history. we have the highest rate of incarceration in the world, dwarfing the rates of even highly repressive regimes like russia or china or iran. and the majority of the increase in incarceration in the united states have been among impoverished people of color who, once they're swept into the system, are then stripped of the very rights supposedly won in the civil rights movement. and yet, the topic of mass incarceration has been one, you know, that has been rarely raised. >> is there research that confirms that the backlash is against black criminals or against criminals, just crime? >> well, there is. there's an enormous amount of research that suggests that the backlash and the punitive impulse was not simply in response to crime but was much more deeply connected to racial attitudes, racial fears and anxieties. and in fact, you know, the political strategist who conceived of the get tough movement and
and today, you know, even in this era of obama, in this time of supposed color blindness, we now have created a system of mass incarceration, a penal system unprecedented in world history. we have the highest rate of incarceration in the world, dwarfing the rates of even highly repressive regimes like russia or china or iran. and the majority of the increase in incarceration in the united states have been among impoverished people of color who, once they're swept into the system, are then...
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Jan 9, 2013
01/13
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if obama does it, it won't happen. but if some republicans start the conversation and make the first proposal, that's the only way we're going to have not only the conversation you're calling for, but action on change. >> and i totally agree with that. >> so why can't we get the republican party to see what you have been talking about? >> i think basically the republican party has reached the conclusion themselves that they are appealing to the dismissive wing of their own base. i mean, it's actually quite remarkable when you look back over the history of this. i mean, remember the figure in the u.s. senate who repeatedly put forward the nation's best and most sophisticated answers to the climate challenge for many years was senator john mccain. the nominee of the republican party was the premiere architect of responding to climate change. how far things have changed in the past four years where we ended up in the primaries of -- the republican primaries of 2012 and we found that all of them, with the one exception of
if obama does it, it won't happen. but if some republicans start the conversation and make the first proposal, that's the only way we're going to have not only the conversation you're calling for, but action on change. >> and i totally agree with that. >> so why can't we get the republican party to see what you have been talking about? >> i think basically the republican party has reached the conclusion themselves that they are appealing to the dismissive wing of their own...
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Apr 8, 2013
04/13
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and some of the children got to read in front of michelle obama at the white house. and it was it was funny, because i think the entire time we were working on this project, they didn't really believe that they were going to go to the white house. >> the kids? your kids? >> yeah. like we tell them and they and they would say, "yeah, yeah, white house, whatever. you know, yeah. we see it all the time on the bus, we ride past it." but then when they actually got there and they actually got to meet some of the members on the president's committee their faces, like kerry washington, their faces, like lit up and they got nervous. and i said, "you know, don't act nervous now. you were all cool before, when you didn't think you were going to come. so, now you're here. just relax and do what you have to do." and they did a great job. they did a really great job. i'm proud of them. >> do you remember the first poem you ever heard in school? >> you know, i like to think of hip-hop as one of my first advanced english teachers. i was lucky enough. i had some teachers, mr. finley
and some of the children got to read in front of michelle obama at the white house. and it was it was funny, because i think the entire time we were working on this project, they didn't really believe that they were going to go to the white house. >> the kids? your kids? >> yeah. like we tell them and they and they would say, "yeah, yeah, white house, whatever. you know, yeah. we see it all the time on the bus, we ride past it." but then when they actually got there and...
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Sep 21, 2013
09/13
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. >> president obama is all about equality of results. i'm about equality of opportunity. i'm not about equality of result when it comes to income inequality. there is income inequality in america. there always has been and hopefully, and i do say that, there always will be. why? because people rise to different levels of success based on what they contribute to society and to the marketplace and that's as it should be. >> well, first of all, let's be clear about what we are arguing. rick santorum is exactly right in saying that nobody should expect or even advocate equality of outcome. the real problem is that we don't have equality of ir.ç opportunity. what do i mean by that? number one, the schools available to poor and lower middle class and many middle class families and their kids are not nearly as good as the schools available to the wealthy. the tax laws are weighted increasingly in favor of the wealthy. therefore a lot of middle class and poor people actually are paying, particularly through social security taxes, which nobody talks about. they all want to talk a
. >> president obama is all about equality of results. i'm about equality of opportunity. i'm not about equality of result when it comes to income inequality. there is income inequality in america. there always has been and hopefully, and i do say that, there always will be. why? because people rise to different levels of success based on what they contribute to society and to the marketplace and that's as it should be. >> well, first of all, let's be clear about what we are...
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Aug 19, 2013
08/13
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well, that's "sÍ se puede." >> barack obama: yes we can. yes we can. >> marshall ganz: that was a great moment. that was what sort of raised such hopes about his presidency. >> bill moyers: did people count too much on his charisma and didn't assess his inexperience sufficiently? >> marshall ganz: oh, in retrospect, you know, probably so, you know? but i don't know, i think there's plenty of responsibility to go around. i mean, i think there was too much readiness to just leave it up to obama. and i think that those of us who wanted to do more about economic justice and immigration and climate change needed to do more. we had to be contentious. that's how it works. it's like this idea that contentiousness is somehow alien to democracy and that consensus is somehow what democracy is about and that polarization is bad. paralysis is bad. but, you know, it's like saul alinsky says, "organizers have to be well-integrated schizoids, because you have to polarize to mobilize and depolarize to settle. but without polarizing you're never going to mob
well, that's "sÍ se puede." >> barack obama: yes we can. yes we can. >> marshall ganz: that was a great moment. that was what sort of raised such hopes about his presidency. >> bill moyers: did people count too much on his charisma and didn't assess his inexperience sufficiently? >> marshall ganz: oh, in retrospect, you know, probably so, you know? but i don't know, i think there's plenty of responsibility to go around. i mean, i think there was too much...